Love between women is honored in the lives of Ruth and Naomi. Their feast day is observed today (Dec. 20).

Ruth’s famous vows to Naomi are often used in weddings -- heterosexual as well as same-sex unions. Few people realize that these beautiful words were originally spoken by one woman to another:

“Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

Ruth is an ancestor of Jesus Christ, listed in his genealogy in the gospel of Matthew. It reports mostly a male lineage, and Ruth is one of only four women who are included.

Naomi was the mother-in-law of Ruth and Orpah. After their husbands die, Naomi urges both of them to remarry. The painting by Trudie Barreras shows Orpah leaving while Ruth stays with Naomi.

The painting “Whither Thou Goest” was commissioned in 2004 by Rev. Paul Graetz, pastor of First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta, for a sermon series that he was doing on the Book of Ruth.

The billboard featuring Ruth and Naomi is part of the Would Jesus Discriminate project sponsored by Metropolitan Community Churches. It states boldly, “Ruth loved Naomi as Adam loved Eve. Genesis 2:24. Ruth 1:14.” For more info on the billboards, see our previous post, “Billboards show gay-friendly Jesus.”

The following links to other resources on Ruth and Naomi were suggested by friends of this blog. Thanks, CWS and Yewtree!

If anyone has other suggestions, leave a comment. We can build a whole collection of Ruth and Naomi resources here.
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

13 comments:

pennyjane
said...

the story is one in the bible that just has to be divinely inspired. the way it is written...so frank and so unassuming...so simple and so incredibly beautiful...and where it appears, in the midst of turmiol and terror.

i can't help but believe that God wanted us to take something very important, something unique to us from this story.

the love between ruth and naomi is never labeled, never made into anything but exactly what it was...love expressed and unconditional. the pure love of God by His creation.

they did all the right things according to their culture, they did so willingly, without doubt, bitterness or objection. naomi was the proud momma when ruth gave birth. she was the parent as well as ruth. they were the proud grandparents of jesse, the father of david.

this whole story, the history of the house of david, from whence came our Savior is about how God loves us all...about the wholeness of His creation.

the whole love affair between the great king david and jonathan, the son of king saul, the rightful heir, is tied up in the lives of ruth and naomi. God brought this all together thru His prophet samuel...He did it for us, for the ones left behind, so we too are participants in HIS story.

it leaves me with a very good feeling in my heart...as a lesbian transsexual...that i, too, am a part, a welcome pilgrim to Kingdom of God.

Thanks, pj, for a really lovely comment and expression of faith. Your affirmation of my previous post about Ruth and Naomi is one of the main reasons that I decided to focus more on GLBT saints and Biblical figures of interest to GLBT people and allies.

You wrote -- “the love between ruth and naomi is never labeled” -- like you, I find that refreshing, but others seem to struggle with it. I added a new link to a post at Queering the Church where various scholars are wondering whether Ruth and Naomi qualify as real lesbians, but that’s not a burning issue for me.

Yes, these amazing women seemed to move easily between different roles. I aspire to that, too. To be able to be abased or abound, as Paul writes, and live fully with whatever circumstances come.

I love how you point out the connections with David and Jonathan, and on down the line to Jesus.

It is such fun to see this painting again on the blog, although I see it every Sunday at FMCC, where of course it "lives". I've also enjoyed reading all the commentary.

One thing that has amused and fascinated me over the years is indeed the fact that in the cultures of the East, both in Old Testament times and subsequently, the situation of women in harems is completely ignored. One simply HAS to assume that female-female eroticism was/is more the norm than the exception in those situations where one male "owns" multiple wives/concubines. I know if I were in such a situation, I'd hardly "wait" for "the master" to get around to visiting me to engage in erotic and affectionate interactions with others. Let's get real, folks. Whether Ruth and Naomi were sexually intimate or not, there was a bond of affection much deeper than either one probably ever experienced with her male partner(s).

KittKatt and Trudie-- We have to assume that women subverb male ownership in any way they can throughout history.And since all of women's history, even the non-erotic history is largely hidden, destroyed or just ignored, then you really do have to imagine--- hey did a woman in the Renaissance really paint that painting that "the master" also claimed false credit for?

Or the discovery of the double helix? Or two women hiding out inside of enemy territory AKA the patriarchy.

Trudie, just loved your little jibe at these lords and masters throughout time! LOL too!!!

i have a little thing i do as a part of my week. i like to go to the nursing home next door, visit with the clients and see if anyone would like to hear me read from the bible for them...(i live in the bible belt so it's not hard to get takers here)

when someone says yes i always ask if there is anything they'd particularily like to hear. usually the answer is no....guess what i pick?

it takes 13 minutes to read ruth out loud. thirteen minutes to tell one of the most meaningful stories in the whole bible. thirteen minutes to share the essence of God's love with anyone who'll listen.

just thought i'd say that.

oh....i have one rather fun client there...when i ask her...she wants to hear "that part about Jesus!"

pennyjane, you are a wonderful person to read to folks in the nursing home. During the worst years when I was housebound by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I bought some tapes of the Bible so I could hear someone read it to me. I especially enjoyed Isaiah, and of course “that part about Jesus.” I can see how the Book of Ruth would work well as a 13-minute dose of God’s love.

you're making me think again kitt. soon i'll have to start charging you for over the limit brain usuage.

but...comparing ruth to isaiah...it brings in to focus one reason why ruth works so well in nursing homes....it's simple and straight forward. i don't think i've ever "studied" ruth...it's just what it is, clear and concise.

isaiah....i've studied...and studied...and studied. there are so many angles and dips and corners in there that i'm not sure i'll ever get everything there is to get from it. maybe that's why he was there....so that all these years later we'd still be working out his prophesies....maybe the day we do will be another of those really, really big ones!

pj, I’m glad that I’ve gotten you thinking, and that you seem to enjoy it. I get frustrated by people who assume that Christians don’t’ use their brains, just because we have faith. I see faith and intellect going hand in hand.

I agree that Isaiah is challenging and I certainly don’t feel that I fully understand all the prophesies. But some of them are very powerful for people with health issues, such as Isaiah 40:31:

"Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

when the Spirit told me i needed to transition and begin living a truthful life, i, like so many others, said, "huh?"

"me? You want me to transition?, you want me to fly without a net?"

and the Spirit told me that i could not fulfill the life my Lord and Savior gave me unless i did. so i whined and fussed and pleaded all sorts of impossibilities...all to no avail. the Spirit went silent. the choice was now mine and mine alone...by faith follow, or by arrogance refuse.

needless to say, i caved. i jumped off the cliff...and found myself soaring with the eagles.

amazing! how in the face of proof after proof we still find ourselves doubting.

pj, I’m glad you took that leap of faith. There’s another great Isaiah prophecy that many believe relates to your transition and similar journeys of transgenders and other LGBT folks.

Are you familiar with the interpretation that the word translated as “eunuch” refers to a broad category of people whom we would call LGBT or queer today? In that light, the following prophecy is especially powerful and pertinent. It’s from Isaiah 56:4-5:

This is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant-

to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off."

Uh oh, pj, you’ve got me going on Isaiah now! I can’t end this comment without sharing one of my own personal favorite prophesies from Isaiah, the “peaceable kingdom” of Isaiah 11:6-9:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling [a] together; and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

in the next 6 weeks in my bible study class we're going to be looking at paul's work in thessalonica, then a 6 week lenten series presented by two of the most learned women in our church...then...isaiah...again.

i will take all the time needed for this. if you know of a good coriculuum guide i would love to hear about it...i have twelve weeks to get it together. i wouldn't mind if you had some new approaches or takes on it.

in the last four years we have looked at isaiah twice...but never with much intensity and always seemed to center on the messianic messages. so any reading you might think would be useful to me in preparation would be gratefully appreciated.

It’s great that you’ll be doing a class on Isaiah, pennyjane. You might want to read some of the online materials about the broader meaning of eunuchs. Here are a couple of good links to get you started:

Much of the discussion focuses on what Jesus meant when he said, “There are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:10)

There is also historical info that the word translated as “eunuchs” had many meanings in the ancient world.

Taken together, this sheds new light on Isaiah’s prophecies about eunuchs.

I can’t say that I know an especially great commentary about Isaiah. I just referred to standard references, and read the Book of Isaiah prayerfully many times.

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About me

Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author and art historian. She founded Jesus In Love in 2005 to support LGBT spirituality and the arts. She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches, an LGBT-affirming Christian denomination, and served as its National Ecumenical Officer.

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Jesus in Love supports lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) spirituality, with an emphasis on art and literature. It promotes artistic and religious freedom and teaches love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It is based on these beliefs: God loves all people, including sexual minorities. The creative process is sacred. The queer visions, especially the gay Jesus and LGBT saints, will free people to experience the divine in new ways and lead to a more just world. Jesus in Love was founded by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry as her personal project.It is her gift to the world. Many thanks to everyone who supports her vision.

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